Thanksgiving should be cancelled - the GOPs will turkeys

 

I know it is your biggest holiday and all that, but these are sharply different times and, from where I sit, you have all been in the thrall of a dreadful flock of wild turkeys for the last six months at least. With worse to come.

 

My concern, as always, is that America still has such a huge impact on the so-called free world of which I am a worried citizen nowadays.  Accordingly, the man who leads your great nation, and the decisions he makes in office, will certainly affect me and mine in Ireland into the foreseeable and frightening future. 

 

I look into my (Waterford) crystal ball and, yes, ye should cancel Thanksgiving.

 

Money in the pocket and a secure job are two factors that dominate the undercurrents of about all  elections everywhere. We are in dire straits over here and it looks as if ye are not much better off over there. 

 

The Obama years have not been golden ones by any means. Oratic Obama slid smoothly into power on the promise of a sable kind of Camelot. But it has become Camelost.

 

Your sovereign debt is astronomical, and on that basis and all the evidence to date, Obama will be remembered as a one-term president who will be comprehensively shafted by his discontented people  next year. His days are numbered.

 

And what is most frightening of all, since the Republicans will provide the next president for sure, is the caliber of his successor. The selection process is now in train, the mad wild turkeys are gobbling in the roost day and night. 

 

On the evidence of their performances to date you all should be quaking in your boots.

 

It is incredible that such a mighty and intelligent nation as yours cannot produce a higher quality of candidate than the inadequates contesting the Republican nomination these days and nights.

 

I thought Sarah Palin was laughably limited. But dammit, most of this lot surpasses her on about every front. 

 

You seem to have a choice between a B movie cowboy from Texas, an alleged serial groper, a politician who changes positions as often as one of your quarterbacks, a client in favor of legalizing heroin and prostitution, a lady who makes Palin look like a liberal, and a couple of cute operators who seem to be able to stay near the top of the polls because of their capacity to raise millions in funding rather than

any political acumen they possess. 

 

And that is a scanty commodity as revealed by the few debates I've seen so far.

 

It seems to be a fundamental requirement for the Republican candidates to have visited Israel over the last few months (most of them have), presumably to hold their corner of the powerful Jewish vote, to be  able to raise those millions of campaign funds, to be anti-taxation of any kind, and above all, to be gloriously ignorant of world politics despite that mandatory weekend in Israel. 

 

The Texan cowboy Perry, a cruelly accurate caricature of a Bush, is so limited that he dramatically forgets his lines on TV and occasionally appears totally demented. 

 

The 999 character Cain is magnificently articulate  when dismissing allegations of sexual harassment, but lapses into an amazing silence when asked to comment on the Libyan situation. 

 

None of the contenders bear even a token resemblance to a president that America could be proud of. Yet, despite all the flung dirt, Mitt Romney and Cain are tussling at the top of the roost at the time of writing.

 

My crystal ball says the man to watch at the end of what is a tragi-comedy so far is the wily enough Newt Gingrich. He is one of Shakespeare's fat sleek-headed men that sleep at night and cannily plot by day. He won't be far off the nomination at the end of all the gobbling. 

 

But there are grounds for great apprehension here for all Americans because, during the debates, both himself and Romney clarified that they are itching to go to war with Iran. It looked as if they are so hawkish they would declare that war on inauguration day! 

 

Are there not enough messy wars without clear decisions draining America's strained resources already? 

And, just like Afghanistan, a war in Iran can never be clearly or cleanly won. 

 

Cancel Thanksgiving I say. This is the year of the Wild Turkeys.